


sure would be nice if my anxiety would be more like my gpa and drop

by presidenthomewrecker



Series: a series of unfortunately long fanfic titles [2]
Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Daisy Has Anxiety, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 15:06:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12510128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/presidenthomewrecker/pseuds/presidenthomewrecker
Summary: Daisy doesn't know what's happening. In the blink of eye, suddenly she's royally sucking at school.But if there's one thing for certain, her dad cannot know.Because what is she if she isn't smart?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> whoops its a series

71%

The numbers stare back at her, struck in an angry red.

Daisy blinks back tears, feeling a tremor up to her shoulders.

25/35

-10

Ten. _Ten_. _How could she get ten whole questions wrong?_

That would be a _D-minus_ if they were on the 7-point scale, and even without, it’s still a _C-minus_. C- _minus_. Below average.

How could she mess up so badly? This wasn’t even any of her AP work; it was just a regular fourth grade test. She should’ve aced that no problem. She wants so badly to believe that her test got mixed up with someone else’s, but she can clearly see her handwriting, her answers, all marked through with an ugly red pen.

Each mark is like a stab to her chest. How is that one wrong? How is _that_ one wrong? She was right. She’d done so well. She knew this. How could the Ms. Swanson do this to her? Daisy touches a hand to her throat, her windpipe feeling uncomfortably tight.

Ms. Swanson continues to talk, but the words are jumbled sounds. They float above Daisy’s head, too far up for her to catch, so she doesn’t try. It’s easier to stare at the test in front of her, dressed up in its ugly red scars that’ll never fade.

The bell rings, the powerful noise bursting through her bubble of panic, and Daisy quietly lets herself out, keeping her head down so that the teacher doesn’t spot her. She usually stops to chat, since she usually spends her recess in the library anyway, but she just can’t bring herself to look her teacher in the eyes after such a massive failure.

The halls are bustling with energy as the kids put away their books and scurry back to the playground. Daisy slips into the bathroom, glad that no one throws her a second glance.

The bathroom’s empty, so Daisy ducks into the farthest stall, her hands shaking so badly that she’s barely able to slide the lock into place. She can barely contain her desperate gasps for air. It feels like her lungs are too big for her chest, pounding desperately against her ribs to try and get free.

She waits until the last trace of her classmates’ chatter disappears outside before she bursts into tears. It’s only a matter of seconds before she’s full-body sobbing, her chest heaving, shoulders bouncing, and her throat closing and opening in a desperate grab for air. She plops to the floor and tucks her knees up after she’s hit by a wave of dizziness.

God, why is she such a failure?

How could she mess up so badly?

Dad will be so mad about this.

Wasn’t she supposed to be smart?

“Hey, lil crying dude.”

Daisy squeaks as she glances down to find some high schooler poking her head underneath the stall door. She hastily scrubs at her eyes, like she isn’t already completely busted.

“You doing alright?”

The bathroom door flies open. “Mandy, what the fuck are you doing?” another voice asks, this one flat and slightly annoyed.

“Um, the lil dude in here is really upset. I was checking on her.” Mandy replies.

“I’m okay.” Daisy replies in a shaky, quavering, definitely “not okay” voice. She must sound so immature, nothing like the worldly, grown-up kid she’s _supposed_ to be.

“Okay, but do you wanna hang out with us anyway?” the other girl tries. Daisy can see from underneath the stall door that she’s sporting a pair of combat boots. “I’m gonna take a smoke break.”

“Callie, you vape.” Mandy points out.

“Yeah, but vape break doesn’t have the same ring to it.”

Daisy giggles at that, and Callie kneels, revealing a ripped pair of black jeans.

Callie chuckles back. “Come on. I’ll show you how you can get rid of the post-sobbing and panic attack look.”

Daisy bites her lip. She’s aware that if she waits, she’ll still look like a wreck by the time recess is over, and that’s only factoring in if she doesn’t start crying again—and she’s guaranteed to start crying within five minutes if left to her own thoughts.

“Okay.” Daisy stands, ignoring the stab of pain she gets from her oncoming headache, and slides the lock out of place.

Mandy and Callie grin at her.

She’s seen them before, she thinks. They look like they’d be friends with Lucien.

Callie’s decked head to toe in black, with sharp makeup on her face. She looks kind of scary, but the smile kind of ruins it.

“Oh my God, you’re adorable. Look at those freckles.” Mandy coos. She takes a wet paper towel and gently runs it underneath Daisy’s eyes. “It’s important to get the area around the eyes first. The puffy eyes are always a dead giveaway.” She ignores Daisy’s look of concern. “I watch Disney movies during my study hall and I always cry at the end. And I’m sick of my chemistry teacher trying to send me to the guidance counselor because of it.” She dabs at Daisy’s cheeks. “Okay, Callie, what do you think?”

“Looks good to me.” Daisy thinks that might just be her personality, but then Callie’s face breaks into a smile, and she looks almost sweet. “Come on. You can hang out with us.”

Daisy follows the girls out of the bathroom, her eyes darting around the empty hallway. No one’s here. In fact, it’ll probably be empty

“Um, so I have a question. You’re high schoolers. What are you even doing here?”

“I have all my credits so I have a free period, and the elementary school hired me to take calls and organize their shit,” the purple-haired girl explains.

Mandy nods. “Her secretarial work is exemplary. And my Spanish teacher couldn’t care less. She just puts on Spanish movies and then leaves to smoke.”

They go out around the side, where no one is. Daisy can still hear cries of her peers as they run and play, and she hugs herself a little. Why couldn’t she be normal and smart and do well? Now she’s the class idiot.

Mandy must realize something’s up, because she wordlessly pats Daisy’s shoulder.

Callie pulls her vape from the bag. There’s a pregnant pause before anyone speaks. “So.” Callie begins. “Wanna tell us what’s up?”

“It’s cool if you don’t want to, though.” Mandy adds. “We don’t judge.”

Daisy wordlessly pulls the already-crumpled paper from her bag and hands it over.

Mandy takes it, and Callie slides in behind her to look over her shoulder, her arms around Mandy’s waist.

Callie’s eyes widen. “Man, I’m so sorry, kid.”

“School sucks.”

“It’s a cruel capitalist machine shaping us into drones who need to take constant orders from a higher authority.”

While Daisy partially agrees, setting aside school giving the population a baseline knowledge for college, that’s beside the point. “It’s just… it’s all I’m good at.”

“I mean, you’re pretty good at being awesome.” Mandy points out. “Just saying.”

“Besides, your teacher’s probably an idiot.” Callie tells her. “Elementary school is what you teach when you can’t get your masters and aren’t good enough to teach high school.”

“It’s not her fault I’m stupid.” Daisy mutters. Ms. Swanson’s just doing her job. Just because it feels like a personal attack, like the two numbers she wrote on the front could single-handedly destroy her dad being proud of her ever again… The tight-chest feeling is back.

Callie’s eyes go wide. She doesn’t seem to like that. “Hey…”

But Daisy cuts her off before she gets a chance. “Can you help me get rid of this?” She points to her test, well aware of the lighter hanging out of Mandy’s shirt pocket.

It must come off as obvious, because Mandy falters. “Lil dude, I’m not sure about that. Lying to your parents is dope, but I don’t think I can encourage delinquency in anyone under age fifteen.”

“Ernest.” Callie points out, and Mandy immediately corrects herself.

“Age fourteen.”

“Please.” Before Daisy can stop herself, tears form in the corners of her eyes. “My dad can’t know I’m a failure.”

While the girls stare at her, lost and helpless for a brief moment, they end up nodding solemnly. Callie takes the test and mashes it into a ball shape. Mandy takes the lighter from her pocket and lights the crumpled ball. The flames dance along the edge, creeping inward, and Callie drops it at their feet.

They all watch it burn against the concrete.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyo so i've got a [tumblr](http://president-homewrecker.tumblr.com/post/170243158376/hey-guys-i-have-a-really-really-awesomely) you can drop by
> 
>  
> 
> it'll also help explain why my updates are so sporadic lately


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> guys i'm so fucking sorry you had to wait 8 months for this so i tried to make it extra long

Daisy’s braced for the worst when school is dismissed.

Maybe it’s a silly thought, but she can’t shake the fear that her dad will instantly know what happened, that the first thing out of his mouth will be a question about how stupid she is. She internally cringes as his car pulls up.

Her father grins at her, and Daisy has to tell herself it’s not an act. He doesn’t know any better, doesn’t know his daughter is an idiot.

“Hi, Dad.”

“Hey, honey.” Brian leaves over to plant a kiss on her forehead. “How’s my favorite girl?”

She dodges the questions by shrugging.

Brian only grins. “Well, we’ll just have to make some brownies when we get home. How does that sound?”

She’s about to nod in agreement when she spots two familiar figures sprinting towards the car. Her immediate thought is that they can’t be coming for her. Mandy or Callie must’ve forgotten something.

Brian jumps as someone knocks on his window, and his confusion only grows at the sight of a girl with too much hair dye and eye makeup grinning at him. With notable suspicion, he rolls down his window.

“Hi, sir!”

“Hey there!” Brian answers. It’s clear he’s making an effort to be polite, but he’s unsure of what she wants. Daisy can’t help wondering when he’ll regard her with the same kind of mistrust once he finds out what she’s hiding. “Can I help you?”

Callie nods. “We’re friends with Lucien, and we’re gonna be hanging out at his house. With parental supervision,” she was sure to add. “And we know Daisy lives in the cul-de-sac, so we were wondering if it would be okay if she could hang out with us.”

“Really?” There’s a note of confusion in his voice as he parses things out.

On one hand, Daisy knows she’s weird. She can’t relate to people her own age, so it’s a given that she latches onto older kids, like Callie, Mandy, and Amanda. But how far is too far? When does she become too weird for him to know how to parent?

“Damien will be hanging out with us too.” Mandy adds. “And we’re just watching a Disney movie.”

Callie jerks her thumb toward Mandy. “She cries every time.”

“Fight me!”

Brian cracks a smile. His walls are coming down, even if he is unsure about two high schoolers that have Bad Influence written all over them asking his ten-year-old to hang out. “Where are you kids gonna be?”

“Lucien’s house.”

“Damien offered to make us cookies!” Mandy pipes up.

Brian leans back. “Well, doesn’t that sound fun! What do you think, Daisy? How’s your homework schedule look tonight?”

He’s giving her an out if she needs it. He knows how nervous she can get around other people, how self-conscious she can be about her own actions. It’s easy for her to get overly anxious about social interaction, and he knows it’s best to give her the chance to say no more often than not. Daisy grimaces, thinking of all the kids that would make fun of her for being “weird.” But Mandy and Callie wouldn’t do that, right?

She nods. “I don’t have much homework tonight.”

“Great! We’ll see you girls at Damien’s house, then!”

Mandy grins. “Rad! See you guys there!”

The girls take off, seamlessly dodging the onslaught of minivans that stand between them and the sidewalk. Brian lets the car idle a bit, to make sure most of the cars have cleared out, before he puts the car into drive.

“Hard day?” Brian asks as the car begins to move.

Daisy can feel her stomach start to eat itself. Despite herself, she nods. She feels the tiny space grow a little more somber. “A little bit.”

Brian grunts. “Then we’ll make this weekend extra special.”

Brian turns on the radio, and not more is said between them. When they get home, he lets her walk to Damien’s by herself. Not that she’s incapable, but it’s always nice to walk together.

She throws her bag into the corner, not bothering to take everything out and put it all into the proper places on her desk. If she does that, then she’ll be stuck alone and thinking about how her dad probably already senses she’s some kind of failure and wanting to distance himself from her because she’s a lost cause at this point and—

She hurries over to Damien and prays he answers the door quickly.

“Daisy?” Damien smiles politely and sweeps his arm in a grand gesture. His cape flutters behind him. “Why, what a lovely surprise. Do come in.”

She steps inside, lingering in the doorway as he closes the door behind her. “Callie and Mandy invited me,” she says in a small voice. She can’t help it. With Damien’s poise and charm, she always feels like she’s never being polite enough. “I hope that’s okay.”

Damien smiles at her. “Of course it is. I’m afraid I’ve made too many cookies anyway, and Lucien always ends up taking what’s left and eating them within a day. All the sugar causes him to break out, and the last thing either of us want is to spend another afternoon doing an intensive acne treatment. You don’t have any allergies or other special dietary needs, do you, dear?”

Daisy shakes her head. “I’ll be fine. Thank you for the concern, though.”

From the way his face grows warmer, she can tell she said the right thing. At the very least, she’s still good at being polite. “You’re very welcome. Everyone’s gathered downstairs. Allow me to escort you.” With a little flourish, he presents her with his hand.

It feels childish and maybe a little dumb to be holding a grown-up’s hand, but the way that Damien bowed makes her feel more like a princess than a little kid. However, that doesn’t stop her from nervously detaching her hand when she and Damien run into Lucien.

“Hey, Daisy.” Lucien greets her. He doesn’t smile, nor does he give any indication that he isn’t infinitely annoyed by her existence. “Mandy and Callie said you’d be coming.”

He holds the door open for both Daisy and Damien, but she’s sure that’s just because of his upbringing. He probably couldn’t care less about her.

“Everyone! We have a new guest!” Damien announces.

“YOOO! DAISY!” Mandy cheers.

“Mandy, please calm down.” Callie mutters.

A familiar head of curly hair pops up from behind the rows of beanbag chairs. “Daisy?”

Daisy feels her cheeks heating up. “Hi, Ernest.”

“At least she’s cooler than the last one we brought in.” Lucien trudges over, tossing a water bottle in Ernest’s direction. “Stay hydrated, you loser.”

Damien fondly rolls his eyes. “I’ll never understand how they show affection for one another,” he says in a low voice, and Daisy giggles just as quietly. “I’ll be back soon with the cookies.” Damien announces, and then he’s gone.

Mandy throws up her arm. “Daisy! Over here! We saved you a bean bag!”

Sure enough, a blue bean bag is sandwiched between Mandy’s and Callie’s, topped off with a Hershey bar. Judging by the way Callie’s grinning, the candy is her doing, so Daisy smiles back and plops down.

“So here’s the full crew!” Mandy announces. “You already know Lucien and Ernest, so that’s cool, but Daisy, this is William and that’s David.”

David waves. The most gothic thing he’s wearing is a dark gray hoodie, which somehow it makes him look scarier than everyone else by comparison.

William also waves. With the curly reddish-brown hair and glasses, it’s probably for the best that he’s settled more on a hipster kind of look. His flannel shirt is shades of black and he’s got holes in his jeans, but the beanie and the anime shirt give him away as being the furthest thing from scary.

She waves back.

“Soak it in.” Callie tells her. “This will probably be the only time you ever seen William.”

“He has a habit of ditching us last minute.” Mandy adds, just loud enough for William to hear. He gives her the finger, which Mandy promptly returns.

“You should stick with us.” Callie suggests. “The guys are cool, but it’s starting to become a total sausage fest in here.”

Daisy smiles and pretends like she knows what that means.

Damien returns with the cookies and, after a little goading from everyone involved, ends up taking the bean bag in the dead center. He’s laughing, clearly out of his element. Daisy can’t say she doesn’t relate.

The movie of choice is Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and while Daisy has never heard of the movie, she assumes it’s a big deal. Beside her, Callie murmurs almost every line of dialogue under her breath, and both girls give a collective cheer once Helga Sinclair is introduced.

Daisy immediately feels herself latching onto Milo, because everyone looks down on him. She can only imagine that’ll be her in a few years. She bets that Milo was in the top of his class once, too, taking AP tests. Did Milo’s dad let him skip those two grades he could’ve tested out of? Or did his dad want him to grow up kind of normal, as well? Honestly, it’s probably for the best. She’d probably look even dumber flunking out of middle school, especially when everyone would be so confident she’d ace it.

She becomes aware of someone hanging over her shoulder, and when she looks, she tries not to look visibly afraid. Ernest is only a few years older than her, after all. Not nearly as intimidating as a bunch of high schoolers.

“Something up?”

Daisy snaps out of it, and glances up. Suddenly, all the characters are underground. Did she really zone out for that long? Callie and Mandy haven’t noticed a thing, too busy gushing about how Helga’s character design matches her mental state throughout the progression of the movie. “I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

He rolls his eyes. “You’re looking at that cookie like it sent your dog to the hospital.”

“It is chocolate chip.” Daisy points out. “It could send Maxwell to the hospital if he ate enough of it.”

“Oh, spare me. I’ve had enough emotional turmoil over the past few weeks to know you’re full of shit.”

Daisy goes tense. Is it really that obvious? Does that mean her dad has figured it out already? And if not, does that mean Ernest is going to tattle on her?

“Hey, no need to freak out.” Ernest says, suddenly worried enough to backpedal. “I’m just saying that you can talk to me or whatever. I’ve got a dog you can pet, too, if that helps.”

She shakes her head. “I’m… fine. I promise.” Maybe if she tells herself that enough times, it’ll start to come true. Regardless, she doesn’t want to tell anyone else. Ernest is nice, but she doesn’t know if she trusts him. He might just rat her out to her dad. She likes Callie and Mandy because they keep secrets.

“Alright…” Ernest slinks back and returns to his own beanbag, but not before grabbing no less than five cookies. She can hear him and Lucien start to bicker before he’s even sat back down.

Daisy focuses on the movie from that moment on. The last thing she needs is for her wandering thoughts to out her to this huge group of teenagers, all of whom are way cooler than she could ever hope to be.

Just like she was warned, Mandy starts sobbing near the end, so Daisy offers to give her a hug. She spends the remainder of the movie with Mandy sobbing into her shoulder. She doesn’t mind, though. The hugging is nice.

“So?” Callie prods, grinning at Damien once the credits start to roll. “What did you think?”

“I must agree that was quite the marvelous film. I’ve always been found of traditional animation.” He stands up. “Thank you for giving me this chance to relax, but I’m afraid I have work to attend to. Will everyone be staying for dinner?”

Callie shakes her head. “Nah. As much as we love free food, we’re gonna hit up the mall for terrible nachos.”

“Sounds like quite the adventure. Do be careful, all.”

The room echoes with a chorus of goodbyes as Damien leaves.

Once he’s gone, Mandy sighs, wiping her eyes with her flannel. “I wish _my_ dad were that cool. Instead, he’s just a divorced alcoholic dating a girl barely two years older than me.”

William opens his mouth, but Callie cuts him off before he can start. “As much as I’d love take a swing around the roundtable and have everyone talk about their terrible fathers, I’m craving something so drenched in sodium that it’s gonna shorten my lifespan by at least twenty minutes and I need it now.” Callie says. She looks to Daisy. “You wanna tag along?”

Daisy feels her heart begin to stutter. Will she get in trouble if she said no? “I mean, I only told my dad I’d be over here, so…”

“Say no more. We totally get it.” Mandy says, giving her a cheesy double thumbs-up. “Respecting parental authority is cool.”

There’s this awkward pause, this huge gap of sound where everyone tries to process what Mandy unironically just said.

“I’ll meet you guys in the car.” David announces. “I need to lean against a steering wheel with my head in my hands after that one.”

Lucien tosses him a pair of keys. “At least get the air going, then. And don’t change the radio station!” He only hesitates for a second. “He’s so gonna change the radio station to that dumb alternative soft-rock garbage. I need to stop him.” And just like that, Ernest, Lucien, and William are gone too.

Callie rolls her eyes. “Dorks.” She turns back to Daisy. “Well, kid, I hope you had fun with us.”

Daisy nods, causing Callie to grin.

“Rad. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

Tomorrow? She actually wanted to see Daisy after all this? “Yeah. Sure.”

“ _Raaaad_. Hit us up if you ever wanna do dumb girly shit, okay?” Callie runs her hand through Daisy’s pigtail. It seems like it’d be so unlike her, but the kind, motherly gesture feels natural.

“Okay!” Daisy can’t remember the last time someone took her clothes shopping or got their nails done with her. She always joked with her dad that she didn’t need those types of things, but anything sounds fun when Callie and Mandy are involved.

“Cool. Take care, okay?”

Mandy leans down, and the sobriety in her face is jarring. “And if anything gets to be too much, just know that you can talk to us if you need to. We don’t judge, and we don’t betray trust. Got me?”

“Got you.”

Mandy grins, and just like that, the heaviness in the air is gone. “Neato burrito!” She pulls Daisy into a quick hug and sprints off. “Later!”

Daisy waves goodbye, frowning at the silence left in her wake. She sees the discarded plate from earlier and scoops it up, knowing her dad wouldn’t like the thought of her leaving such a mess behind.

She finds Damien upstairs, making tea.

She doesn’t even realize he’s noticed her until he starts to speak. “Teenagers. They can be quite the whirlwind, can’t they? In one minute, out the next. I don’t know how they do it.”

“Me either.” She puts the plate on the counter.

“Thank you, Daisy. Your help is greatly appreciated.”

“No problem.” It is just a plate, after all, but she’s glad she can feel like she’s good for something.

“I’m sorry if I’m being intrusive, but I’m afraid I have to ask. Otherwise they’d revoke my mug.” He holds up his “#1 Dad” mug and sets it down beside his half-prepared spot of tea. “But it seemed as if you had a lot on your mind this evening. I know things can be stressful, and I’m sure I’m not the ideal person to talk to, but please know that I’m always willing to listen and I always have snacks.”

It’s enough to get a tiny smile out of her. “Thank you, Mr. Bloodmarch, but I don’t think I’m really ready to talk about it with anyone else yet.” Maybe after she finally comes to terms with how dumb she really is, when she can think about those ugly red numbers on her test without her stomach dropping.

Damien nods. “Very well. Your privacy is important and I will not coerce you into divulging any information.”

“Thank you.”

“But of course. Please take care of yourself, dear. Now,” he bows, holding out his hand. “May I escort you home, madam?”

Daisy giggles and takes his hand.

**Author's Note:**

> check out my tumblr if you're interested! i love to chat!
> 
> president-homewrecker.tumblr.com


End file.
